"Signs of Life" is the opening track on ''

A Momentary Lapse of Reason ''A Momentary Lapse of Reason'' is the thirteenth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in the UK on 7 September 1987 by EMI and the following day in the US by Columbia Records. It was recorded primarily on th ...

'', the first

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

album headed by

David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who is a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined in 1967, shortly before the departure of the founder member Syd Barrett. By the early 1980s, Pink F ...

, in the absence of ex-member

Roger Waters George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. In 1965, he co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd as the bassist. Following the departure of the group's main songwriter Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became ...

Music

It is an instrumental piece, the only words being the electronically processed voice of drummer

Nick Mason Nicholas Berkeley Mason (born 27 January 1944) is an English drummer and a founder member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. He has been the only constant member since the band's formation in 1965, and the only member to appear on every ...

, who can briefly be heard reciting two verses of an unknown poem. To open the track, producer

Bob Ezrin Robert Alan Ezrin (born March 25, 1949) is a Canadian music producer and keyboardist, best known for his work with Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Kiss, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, Andrea Bocelli and Phish. As of 2010, Ezri ...

recorded the sound of

's boatman, Langley Iddins, rowing across the Thames. The screen film used to accompany the piece during concert performances featured Iddins rowing through Grantchester Meadows. The track is Pink Floyd's first instrumental piece (excluding the live-only "

The Last Few Bricks "The Last Few Bricks" is an instrumental bridge/Medley (music), medley used by Pink Floyd and Roger Waters at ''The Wall'' live shows, between "Another Brick in the Wall#Part 3, Another Brick in the Wall, Part 3" and "Goodbye Cruel World (Pink F ...

") since

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

's "

Any Colour You Like "Any Colour You Like" is the eighth track on ''The Dark Side of the Moon,'' English rock band Pink Floyd's 1973 album. It is an instrumental written by David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason. Composition The piece itself has no lyrics a ...

", from ''

The Dark Side of the Moon ''The Dark Side of the Moon'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 1 March 1973, by Capitol Records in the US and on 16 March 1973, by Harvest Records in the UK. Developed during live performances before ...

''. Its roots go back to the 1970s. The song

segue A segue ( , ; ) is a transition from one topic or section to the next. In music In music, ''segue'' is a direction to the performer. It means ''continue (the next section) without a pause''. The term ''attacca'' is used synonymously. For writ ...

s directly into " Learning to Fly". "Signs of Life" ends on an E minor chord, while "Learning to Fly" opens with the

relative major In music, 'relative keys' are the major and minor scales that have the same key signatures (enharmonically equivalent), meaning that they share all of the same notes but are arranged in a different order of whole steps and half steps. A pair of m ...

G major. A live recording has been released as part of the concert film ''

Delicate Sound of Thunder ''Delicate Sound of Thunder'' is a live album by the English band Pink Floyd. It was recorded over five nights at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, in August 1988, during their A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour, and mixed at Abbey Ro ...

''. The accompanying

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th centur ...

did not include the track until the 2019 remix, which contains the entire live setlist. The piece is shortened on all official releases of ''Delicate Sound of Thunder''. On the 2019 album and video version, parts of Mason's spoken vocal were re-inserted into the track even if live recordings from the tour show that it was not part of the original concerts.

Personnel

;Pink Floyd *

– electric guitar,

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

, programming *

– spoken words Additional musicians: * Richard Wright – Kurzweil synthesizer *

– sequencer, sound effects *

Jon Carin Jon Carin (born October 21, 1964) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and producer. He has collaborated with acts including Pink Floyd, the Who, Eddie Vedder, Neil Finn, Kate Bush and Richard Butler. Biography As a teenager, Jon Carin ...

– synthesizer

References

External links

* 1987 songs Pink Floyd songs Rock instrumentals Songs written by David Gilmour Songs written by Bob Ezrin Song recordings produced by Bob Ezrin Song recordings produced by David Gilmour {{1980s-rock-song-stub